Zap

"High-school theater departments willing to experiment with something new might try this as an alternative to the same old reruns of Grease and Romeo and Juliet." - Kirkus Reviews

Newbery Medalist Paul Fleischman has considered the advice of performers and producers in this newly refreshed and thoroughly updated edition of a high-school tour de force. When high school drama departments are not dusting off the old classics - over and over - they are constantly in search of new material. But what play could possibly suit the sound bite attention span of kids who flit from text messages to social networks throughout their day? Cue the lights for Zap, a nonstop farce that juxtaposes seven different plays - performed simultaneously - with comic genius. An extensive author's note provides information and insight on the plays and playwrights spoofed in Zap.

About the Author

Paul Fleischman is the master of the multi-voiced, multilayered book for young readers. He grew up in Santa Monica, California, hearing his father, Sid Fleischman, read his books as they were written. At 19, after two years of college in Berkeley, Fleischman took a cross-country bicycle and train tip, ending up living in a 200-year-old house in New Hampshire. Living in a modified 18th century lifestyle - wood heating, no electricity or phone - kindled an interest in the past which has influenced much of his fiction. Both Sid and Paul have won the Newbery Medal, Sid in 1987 and Paul for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices in 1989. Paul is also the author of A Fate Totally Worse Than Death, a parody of teenage horror novels; Dateline: Troy, a modernised retelling of Homer's epic poem; and the award-winning picture books Sidewalk Circus, The Animal Hedge and Weslandia.